The Maori as He Was, and as He Is.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 141, 4 February 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Maori as He Was, and as He Is.

FROM CANNIBALS TO FiGHTING BACHELORS OF SCIENCE. The great charge of Maoris up the side of Sari Bair on August 8 is been described as "another link of Empire." To those who know this grand race, it is a sign of their complete from the sloth which threatened at one time to extinguish ie finest and most martial of all coloured peoples. The two following conversations, one held in 1895 with an oldme Maori chief, and the other in 1915 with a virile Ma</i soldier of lie same blood, now a B.A. and a B.Sc., may serve to illustrate what lie chance "of fighting for the Empire means to the Maoris of New ZeauhL ("Weekly 'Dispatch.")

THE OLD-TIME MAORI—IB9S. Patara wag taking the sun on the slopes of Mount Eden, Auckland, Patara te Tuhi, the only cannibal who has ever edited a newspaper. Patara was ninety years of age, and the blue spirals into which his face was tattooed were creased-with many a wise wrinkle. His'-hair was as thick as that of a young man and as white as driven enow. Hi&i black eyes gjlanced liko those of a falcoifc And these were the words of Patara the wise, cannibal chief, warrior, editor, and maker of Maori kings. '•». • * ♦ * " Before the white man came to AoTea the land all belong to the Maoris. They fought among themselves like brave gentiemenfi and their weapons were the axQioi, pounamu (green jade) and the war-club. 1 'What else should they do but fight F It is the sport ot a gentleman —the only sport. Ihey fought, I say, and those who were killed were eaten. For there were no animals in the land, no pigs or sheeo, nothing buit bifcte and the fish in the sea. Thus -the Maoris ate the sharks and thejU ate one. another. -V * *

them died like dogs; but Te Kooti lived to load the Haka of peace and to talk muck in the bush parliaments. * * * *

"So the llangatiras (chiefs) took the land and gave it to the pakeha to farm, getting much money each year in return. Such a one is my nephew. He drives to the races in a buggy. He loses much money in the Tote (pari mutuel). In his whare are few children and many pigs. He is not old, but he is fat and lazy. His girl plays the piano and his boy studies at Te Ante College. But he does not dream of the good fighting that was the sport of the Maori.

"The sea-swallows wing their way over the blue 6ea; they are as many as ever. The Tui birds sing in the bush, more in number than when I wa6 a boy. But the old chiefs of the Maoris are .few and the new ones, are not chiefs any longer. Fewer every year are the merry girls who dance the Poi dance and beat the flax for mats. The edge of the Maori land comes inward; always inward. Because the Maori fights no longer.

Having finished Irs Waiata, the poetical peroration without which no old-time Maori can conclude a speech, Patara te Tuhi ceased speaking. He 6luvered a little, for he was very old, and a cold breeze was blowing from the blue gulf of Hauraki. He drew his blanket closer around his shoulders and drew at his black pipe. But it was out. His head sunk upon his breast. Ho looked very grey and very despondent.

"When my grandfather died, my father and. his brothers ate him. -He had lived long and was very tougo. But they;wished to show him resp'j ■ and it was the only way. 1 have sooj the pakehas, when they were phased with their-men, give them tins cf salmon to eat. Salmon in tins is good. When I was a boy and my father was pleased with me, he gave me human ilesh potted in a calabash. That was our treat. I think I can taste it now. It was good! Ee-e, it was good! * * * *

THE NEW-TIME MAORI—I9I3.

" Then there came the pakeha (white man), with his muskets, and we had no more fair fighting. None could stand against the tubes that killed by thunder. Soon the Maoris had got muskets, and many died where fewhad died of old. Many more died of the disease, and the race dwindled and decayed to its death. In those days "one among us went across the water to see the great Queen, and found how the white men prospered. When lie returned he told us that we d:ed out, and that we faded away before the white man because we needed a kmc;. * * * *

"Haerc-Mai. Welcome. What a grand morning! And what a great country! What a country to fight for!" With a flash of white teeth and a twinkle of merry eyes, Mr. S P . 8.A., B.Sc., private in the Maori Contingent, waved his hand to the peaceful landscape which stretched before his hospital bod, placed under a big tree in the pleasant grounds of what was once an English country house. "Going on splendidly, thank you. These machine guns are sudden, but they do make clean wounds ; there is that much to be said for them.''

"It scorned good to many of usl an J especially to my friend Wirremu Tarn. l liana. So we took counsel :.nd made Pot at a u our king. But the pakiha would not brook that the Maoris shoul 1 have a king. To let our people know what the good of a king would be to them, we had our paper, the Hokoioi (the Phoenix), and it was then that I wrote the paper. But Gorst came (Sir John Gorst) and wrote yet another paper, To Pihoihoi MoUg-Mokg (the Lonely Lark). Between me and Gorst there was great contention. * * * *

"Yes, I have read the generous praise of the Maoris, and the saying that we have forged a new link of Empire. It lias been the joy of every one of us to make good, for we knew that our best friends had some doubt about the Maori when it came to night fighting. Of course we knew better. But it was quite reasonable to argue because the old Maori would not go out at night that the strain of a night inarch and a charge in the dark might prove too much for the nerves of our fellows. But the warrior tradition is stronger even in the most credulous Maori than the instinct of superstition; and we knew that. Y\e knew every man would make good when the time came.

"He wrote words that were bitter and cut like a sharp axe; they made me hang my head that I could not answer him in kind. But Rewi Maniopoto grew angry; and at the advice of Hori Grev, Gorst ran away. Then came Rewi with his \oung biaves and broke the printing press and burnt the paper up. But the lead type of Te Pihoihoi Moke-Moke I took away and melted into bullets. Also lie gained good store of weights from the shops; Four-pound weights and and many that were only so many ounces.

"Did you ever lieai' the story of the Indian soldiers who accompanied a very exalted personage when he visited New Zealand? They saw the Maoris at the Hot Springs, and one of them said to another, thinking the Maoris could not understand, 'Pliaugh, they are pigs. A Maori answered on the spot: 'Te Maori, he fighting man too. You gif him te gun, ho no want te drill. He got it before te pakeha came.' Now that is literally true; our contingent proved in its training that the Maori is a natural soldier. Even discipline, so repellent to him in civilian life, was accepted as a pleasing feature of the great game of war. * * * *

" For now it was war with the pakeha and his army came to camp at the mouth of the Waikato river. But we were fast at Mere-Mere. His gunboat, the Avon, steamed to and fro, up and down our river. Then we took the two brass cannon we had hidden in the bush and loaded- them with much powder and many weights. There were two four-pound weights and many of so many ounces. \Y ben next the gunboat came we fired the cannons. The weights made a great hole in the deck, and" the four-pound weight stuck in a post in the cabin. It is preserved to this dav in the museum. *** * *

"The chance to fight for our Empire is going to complete the regeneration of our race, which was begun by Mr. Ngata and the Young Maori Party a score of years ago. The Maori can work hard, or play hard, or fight hard; but the sloth of many generations is hard to eliminate in a few years. But the chance to fight has made different men of a lot of the young Maoris of whom we were almost in despair.

"General Cameron with his redcoat; sat down near the mouth of the river, and we waited in vain at Merc-Merc for him to come out and fight. The word went round that the pakeha had no food, and so he could not fight., Then the young men gathered together kumanw (sweet potatoes) and fresh pork, and much green meat; two canoe loads. With a white flag flying they rowed the canoes down to the white men's camp, and the chief among them said, 'Here is much food; eat, and then come out and fight.' The white men only laughed; hut they took the food and ate it. for they had nothing but hard biscuit and salted meat.

"There is my own cousin, who is a ]?angatira, and has a bigger income from his land than has lieen altogether good for him. He used to go to the races in his motor-car and cultivate a fifty break at billiards. As I told him, no man in his position ought to live the way he did, with a piano in his parlour and pigs in the kitchen. He is too fat for a young man, and the result is that he was refused when he volunteered, because he carried too much weight. * * * *

"Next day I saw him running along the road, and you would have laughed at the spectacle he presented. He had on a thick fur overcoat, a gorgeous affair, that he bought for twice its value from some swindling American. It was a hot day, and the perspiration was running off him in great streams. And he was running, running: try into get off enough »••••• M ' .• .> dicr l|. • .a> 5 »•>'• *he 1 o d. nicy ..»i.v lor our Empire. . lor an example to the others. The old race is not dying out: already it endures and increase. The last census showed a remarkable increase Mi the number of Maori children under fifteen, and that is the sign we were seeking. Those who remain will show themselves more worthy of their ancestors, and of the men who have died for the credit of the Maori stock.

"Cameron was slow; we called liirn 'the Lame Seagull.' But the time came when he shut 300 .Maoris in a pah at Orakau. and the number of the redcoats was six to one. Then among those in the pah there rose one—it may have been Rcwi Maniopoto or it may have been another—who shouted : "Ka whawhai tonu; ake' ake ake (We will fight on and on. forever and ever and forever). <>n the -dun of the nexi day they out. •he u;, h: n ;l mi vh'bln n m the tlie column. and lougtit 11 ' v through the ..- coaK ''' ' , <li. a. A !el ll.at d.i.v tie- .M ">! : A- „■ fou;:' :r too. "Soon till re ■ aim an end or the good fitting. Our father Hon Grey »ave us much land, and the great Thief* made peace. Only there reniain,.,l Te Kooti and his Hau-Haus. Dogs tl'ev were. They harked like dogs and th« fought like dogs biting the women and children when the white man s bo' k wae turned. So many of

"It has all been so wonderful. Everyhere we were made welcome. We danced the haka in Egypt, and it was a good haka. Again we danced the haka at Gallipoli, when we knew that we were being sent out to fight. We danced it, just a 6 Tommy Atkins sings 'Tipperarv' to cheer our hearts before fighting. * The general saw us dance it, and spoke to us of Ins confidence in us all.

"Then came the charge, a wild business that reminded me of a very rough game of football. Our fellows Jet themselves go completely; I know 1 did. I have no knowledge of what I was yelling as we ran at the Turks in the dark. They soeemed bewildered, for they hardly fought at all. Most of them ran, but they could not run fast enough for us. I was wounded twice by machine gun bullets on the second day of lighting, and I was very sorry. I should have I.ked to stay for more.

"It was funny on the boat coming to England, for we had on board an English officer with thin legs like pipestems, and an eyeglass that he could only keep in his face by constant grimaces. He was always talking and expressing opinions. His great word was 'Ripping. Fighting was 'ripping' a whisky and soda was 'r-r-ripping ; and a kind nurse was r-ripping.' One day he came to my friend, Captain ——, who is one of the most learned men in New Zealand, and he said, as though to a Ghurka, 'Well, Johnny, what you think of charging Turks?' My friend screwed up h s face and made a motion as though to stick liiiu with a bayonet. 'R-r-rioping," said he. The English officer teemed much taken aback.

"The English people are most kind, and we can never be grateful enough for the kind things your papers have written about the Maoris. Our race will give to this war. like all the people of Australasia, 'Our last man and our last shilling.' The Maori is not played out: far from it. There may be some slackers among them, but even here there are slackers, as I have seen

for myself. When I look at tins lovelv, peaceful country 1 cannot understand the strong young men I see in flannels, poling pretty girls along the river in punts. If they wish to enjoy this fine country surely they are manly enough to fight for it now.

"And what a country to fight for! When I saw it first, coming rp Plymouth Sound in the early morning, 1 rubbed my eyes to make sure 1 was not dreaming. So beautiful it seemed to me after the sullen hills of GallijM>li. Once 1 s;'.\v a miner lay bare with his p'ck a crust of opal. It was thin as paper and of no value. But the sheen of its greens and blues and yellows and the fire that Jit its edges will ever be in my memory. So, when I went on deck in the early morning and saw Plymouth Sound, with the (ire of dawn lighting its edges, and the soft haze resting on the opaline sea, I drew a long breath of delight that 1 will taste in my mouth when 1 am an old man. It was beautiful as New Zealand itself, but in a different

Then the young Maori, orator and soldier, having said his A\ aiata, or peroration, turned to some fresh visitors, with the smile that has won him so ftiany friends at first sight. And as lie said "Ka ora' his face was young and shining, and full of good hope.