OLD ROTORUA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 40, 9 October 1931, Page 4

OLD ROTORUA

.foqtball in '90's INTRESTING ACCOUNT IN OLD CHAMBERS JOURNAL . ENGLISMAN?S IMPRESSIONS An Tnteresting aceoilixt of early Rotorua and. Rugby. f ootball as it was Jlayed in this Cehtre in' the 'DO^g^ is included- in an. old copy . of "Ghamber's Journal," London, publishod in 1892, which.'has been handfed to the "Post." The heading of fhe arti'cle is "Eootball In Maoriland," but* the writer apparentiy an Englishman. travelling in New Zealand, gives: other interesting impressions in addition to his account of a football game between a team from the o'ld. Rotorua club, and a "Jubilee" team of players from different parts of the town as it was 39 years ago'. The'account reads: — . ■ "On the door of the Public Library of the little.town of Ohinemutu, the capital of the Hot Lakes distriet • of New Zealand, were posted up .two notices, one of a match that afternoon between the Rotorua fbotball club and the Jubilee team. "I had often heard of the prowess of the Maori f ootballers ' since their visit to this country, and resolved to be present. The other 'notice was somewhat curious. It requested all to take note that ^the steam launch was forbidden to -land passengers at any place on Lake . Rotorua, "because it ignores and tramples upon the chief and tribes of the native committee of Rotorua." It: was signed by a dhair man with a .long nanje, unpronounceable until slowly dissected, on behalf of the Great Natiye Committee of Rotorua. To add to the fomality, there was a small attempt at a seal. It was just the old story of fleecing the tourist, so common to the European districts where that class abounds. Ended in Smoke. "This little agitation, however, ended in smoke, the Maoris being brought to a proper comprehension of the fable of the fowl and its golden produce. "The first indieation of something unusual was the riding through the town of sonie h'alf-dozen Maoris, their jackets flying open, displaying their football jerseys, with bands of blue ribbon aeross, like what may be seen at footraces in this country. They were all well dressed and handsome men, most of them with more than a touch of white in their colour. "Leaving the Lake Hotel, I wended my way past the Maori Curiosity Shop and a few Maori huts, out on to the open plain on the road to Oxford (Tirau). After passing the hote,l a large cloud of steam arises from a patch of manuka scrub, betokening the presence of pools of boiling water, for which the distriet is famous. Paths lead through the scrub and between the pools; it is a veritable pilgrim's progress to go through it, so many are the traps for the unwary! It is singular how seldom the natives fall into the boiling water. They may be averse to speak of it; but I only heard of one instance, a poor woman who fell in at Whakarewarewa and was scalded to death.

Accident in Yellowstone. "I was once in the Yellowstone Park in Wyoming when a similar acident occurred. A lady tourist. slipped into a large pool of boiling water, and was rescued by one of the soldiers who are always hanging about the stations and who jumped in after her. Both were severely scalded and I was glad to hear subsequently that the gallant fellow had been very handsomely rewarded. 'A little stream of hot water flows along the side of the road for some distance, and in it a Maori boy is holding a horse for the cure of a sprained ankle — a pleasant kind of cure for both man and beast. In a little pool of boiling water there is a Maori kettle preparing for afternoon tea; and farther on, on the other side of the stream, a miniature geyser is spurting forth drops of the same fashionable fluid— the boiling water, not the tea. A wooden box or sink with open spars -on the bottom, inserted in a pool or steam-hole serves as a potato pot. The Football Ground. "Out along the plain the road runs, passing here and there a cultivated field, but more often the original braken or manuka scrub, until a little knot of people a short distance off the road, a few horses going loose and the football posts, indicate the scene of the eontest. The football ground, while slightly better than that surrounding, owing either to the treading or the cutting down of the bracken, is still very loose and rather resembles a level bit of moor than the trim football fields at home. The Rugby fame appears to have obtained a firm hold in New Zealand, and I think, will always be preferred by the Maoris. They would have difficulty in acquiring the restraint of the hands which is the peculiarity of the Association game, and which of all the acquirements of civilisation, appears to be about the last to be learned by savage nations. "On the game being started, I find that there are two young white men playing, and to them has been relegated the important post of full-back on either side. The others are either pure Maoris or with a more or less Maori ancestry. I was somewhat surprised to see one or two of the natives playing without shoes or stockings; but a continual stripping went on throughout the game, and before the end, many of them had nothing on but their knicker-bockers, and, as may be imagined, were rather difficult to hold. ' "Perhaps a Little Rough." "The game was perhaps a little rough, but fast and excellently played. It was truly wonderful to see a Maori scudding along with his bare feet on the rough ground full of broken or cut bracken, and finishing up with a drop at goal with his bare toes. The only ones who did not go in for stripping were the two whites, and two of the Maoris who had been in the team which had visited England. 'The Jubilee team was a scratch one, got up among old players in the distriet, and although their individual play 'was perhaps superior, the combination of the regular club enabled them to score more points. One of the latter club — a man . conspicuous by. a brilliant band of ribbon and a very blaek heard — in his excitement,

and in derision, danced about and yelled, 'Oh, the Jubilee! the Jubilee'.' — lf I mistake not the burden of old song of the '87. Poet of Village. "The spectators were. few, mostly natives and. all dressed more or less in European costume. A prominent exception, however, was an old Maori with a hideously tattooed face who is known to strangers as the poet of the village. With the exception of his head-dress, his costume appeared to consist of two shawls or blankets, one worri roiind his loins and hanging down like a kilt; the other wrapped round his shoulders. His. head-dress was a Balmoral bonnet, a relic probably of- the wars. Giving the usual salution, 'tena koe,' he squatted down beside me and favoured me with a running commentary in Maori on the game. "Far out on the lake the island of Mokoia — to which the Maori girl, Hinemoa, reversing the orders of the old Greelc legend, swam to meet her lover — is turning black in the silvery gray water, and eonjures up the many romantic stories which cling to it. But football is a hungry thing, espeeially to the onlooker. The romantic gives way to the practieal; • and our next thoughts are of a special Maori supper of wild pig and kumera, which our host has promised us.