TRIALS OF THE PIONEER EXPLORERS IN DOMINION.

Shannon News, 30 August 1929, Page 2

TRIALS OF THE PIONEER EXPLORERS IN DOMINION.

. THEIR DAILY BREAD OFF THE COUNTRY! In the military expeditions after To Kooti and Kereopa in the heart of the Urowera Country, the Government native war-parties led by Ropata, Porter, Mair, and Preece sometimes were reduced to such straits for food that they had to live on pounded hinau berries and fern-root, when their small suppliesof bacon and hard biscuit gave out. utates a writer in a Southern journal. There are still survivors of these expeditions at Rotorua who remember a derisive haka song they chanted when they returned, touching the fern-root diet. By way of being witty they called it, in pidgin English "panarutu."

But it was long before that IS7O-72 period that the pakeha heads of moun-tain-and-bush expeditions proved that they could live entirely on the foods of the forest and stream, when their swag of provisions were consumed. The first of these "Kai-rakau" pathfinders (that is, eaters of forest products) was Thomas Brunner, who, as was recalled the other week, explored the Buller river from source to sea in 1847. Brunner's great adventures make a long story. Just now 1 make some extracts from his diary, kopt on his long' exploring journeys from Nelson to the Butter, Grey and South Wcstland districts, with four Maori companions, to show how he contrived to live in a country from which less resolute and seasoned bushmen would never have returned. ' Particularly-interesting is his ac count of the cabbage-tree's uses as a sweetmeat. Old Ngai-Tahu Maoris have described to me this "umu-ti" practice of former days, and I have many notes on the subject, but for the present let Brunner describe it: The Maori Sugar-Tree. ■ "January 19, 1547 (diary entry):— Collected a quantity of ti, or cabbage tree, which we had placed in an umu, or native oven, for the night. The natives prepare a very palatable dish of the ti and fern root. They extract the sweet particles of the former by beating- and washing it in a proper quantity of water, and when about the consistency of honey they soak in the liquid some layers of- well-beaten and cooked fern-root, which when properly moistened is eaten and has a similar relish to ginger-bread. This can only be made when staying two or three days at a station. The root of the ti is the part used by the natives. It is generally from three to four feet long and of a conic shape, with an immense number of t lon,g, fibrous roots attached to it; so'that the natives, whose tools consist of a pointed stick and their hands, consider, they have ' done a glorious day's work if they manage to obtain five ti roots in the day. It requires an immense oven and to remain twelve hours baking. "20th. —This morning opened our oven, which smalt like a sugar-boiling establishment. Found it excellent but rather too sweet for a diet; however, .this and the fish make a fine meal." There was a fresh-water mussel in Rotoroa district, South Nelson, "which the explorer found was a palatable dish when boiled with the root.of the raupo reed. This was said to have been the favourite food of the great Rauparaha. In that district also, E'runner and his Maoris collected and dried a quantity of fern root for their bush journey.

Diary entry, February 1. —"Diet, fern-ryot, served out in small quantities twice 1 a day. This (Upper Buller) is AA'ithout exception, the very worst country I have seen in New Zealand; not a bird to be had or seen; and the feAV fish there are in the river will not bite during rain or during a fresh. We tried a species of fern-tree called kakote.'' Diary Item, March '9.—'' This morning I suffered about two hours of the most excruciating pain I ever i experienced. The natives ascribed it to the fern-root diet." Fungus for Dinner. The party literally lived from han ! to mouth. Brunner nev'M- kiiew Av'he/e the next day's meal was to c;> ne from. One day'a entry.—" Heavy rain all day. Broke our fast on species of fungus found on the rotten trees willed by the natives arore (horore.) " A few days later Brunner finished lnr small stock of sugar and tea, the one cheering item in his swag. From that time until he returned to Nelson and civilisation a year later he never tasted tea or any other item of pakeha food. Before long the travellers reached the lower levels at the Owcka Valley, where there was an ancient route to the MaAvhcra or Grey river. Now they were in the bird-abounding land, and their hearts and stomachs rejoiced accordingly. One glad day the Maoris snared six weka, six kaka parrots, three teal, and 14 kokako or native crows. The crow, he noted, was easily caught by imitating its cry. later on, Brunner shot some pigeons. "April 18.—Nothing doing but birdcatching. We succeeded in obtaining about 17 Avekas, a dozen "pigeons, a kaka, and six crows, on Avhieh the nati\ T es made a full meal." Seaweed, Pern-tree, Weka and Rats. Feasts and famine, variety of Maori foods and sometimes semi-starvation were Brunner's lot in the eternally drip-

ping forests of Westland. At one time, on the coast, there was only seaweed from the rocks to eat. "Found a small fern-tree,.which gave us breakfast." Belts were drawn tight that day no doubt, but next day Kehu, the good hunter, "secured us a supper of wekas." May 3,4, and 5. —"Continual heavy rains, Nothing to live on but a few rats-" Returning to the North, there was sometimes plenty , sometimes semistarvation. A diary entry in the hungry Buller country again, near where ruined Murchison township is hoav: —"Kehu went searching for food . . . returned -with nothing but two or three thrushes and a fern tree." (Imagine that for your supper, in a floodbeset camp!) When at last the explorer once more reached civilisation's outposts m South Nelson what he enjoyed even more than tea and sugar and bread was "the luxury of a taste of good tobacco." He had been more than 18 months m the wilderness of Weka-land.