JUST LIKE THE PAKEHA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 217, 22 December 1910, Page 5

JUST LIKE THE PAKEHA

THE MAORI AND THE "TALKING WIRE." »:j| __ .1 Auckland, Wednesday. > The Maori, says a writer in the Starry is strongly imitative when a fashion setty in to acquire some of the pakehas' inje mentions. It flies like wild fire, and ths| brown man will let nothing stand in hirfl way, not even hard work. Up North! they recently developed a taste for thej telephone, and to-day all the kaiasgaijj between Waiomio (near Kawakawa.)J Ohaewai, and Kaihoe are linked by thisl ''waea korero" (talking wire). "Therflra they go singing away over the said an old fellovf, explaining the f«afp to a pattella. ''Kanui te mahi ott»| Maori" (great is the industry of ■<ha| Maori), and he smiled the smile otfm child with a nety toy. The amount owj work that has Wen put into the liirti ( whicft is just completed) is remarkable J and the convenience to the settlers The posts of solid totar&| are about twice as heavy as they nee® have been, but this is typical of Native when he sets out to do anythfn|| that interests him. He gets as near th® pakeha style as possible. There .arjl'l branches from the trunk line to eactal

village,'and the dusky housekeeper. enjoys the privilege of ordering the grpe*j eries over the telephone, just like .Mrs? Pakeha. Where the line crosses the Gov| ernment wires the telegraph officials'; have insisted on insulating, and this, hat£j been carried out in a; manner that migbtfj not perhaps comply with Board of Trad© requirements, but is essentially able to the ingenuity of the Mauri tricians. Where they got the idearjafi running the network of wires across isthmus is hard to say, but probabljS they had heard of the system put in byi; the East Coast and Bay of Plenty lS[a| tives between Point Awanui and Oretlel Point, some fifty miles from OpotikS There the Maori, under the a half-caste, put in a line that was « boon and a, blessing to the settlers toll miles around. The opening ceremony w& a great event. The subscriptions fiipjg into a wash-hand basin in the middle' <}| the imarae (village square) amounted w over £3OO. The ceremony lasted ov<*j a couple of days, and many pigs ans inuch shark were consumed. When thes business was slack (generally in ihi® evening) the Natives would switch 1 the instruments right along the lifted and connect up with the "office," wh'erej the Maori operator has a phonography All the "subscribers" were then in this," seventh heaven of delight.'