A SACRED MAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 254, 6 March 1911, Page 4

A SACRED MAT.

WHICH SAVED A LIFE. ; The finest sentiment of love and respect on the part of a Maori family was embodied in an episode in connectionwith the last rites attendant' upon' the death of'the late Air. T. W. McKenzie, of Wellington. When he arrived in Wellington in February, 1840—before Wellington was Wellington, as a matter of fact —as a boy of thirteen, he went ashore in one of the ship Adelaide's, boats, and .with the adventurous spirit of boyhood wandered from the beacb at Tlorndon into the wilderness of scrub' and bush' that lay between the harbor front and the hills. Among certain of the Maoris the coming of the white man was the reverse of welcome, and of these, the Chief Porutu, of the Pipitea pa, was one. He saw the boy, and was, it is related; working up to the murder point, when his wife rushed •om before him, and covered the boy with s native mat, signifying by the act that he was not to be harmed, and that she wished to adopt him. At once, young: MeKenzie and the mat became tapu,, and the mat has- been passed down as an heirloom of the Porutu family. The ■mat was regarded with great Porutu's son, the late E. Piti (Harry, Pitt), who was boatman in the Customs service for many years in Wellington, and when he died it was bequeathed to his son, Mr.. Bltt, of Walnut. When the latter heard of the death pf Mr. McKekzie, on Wednesday, he entrusted the' sacred' mat to his wife to bring; into Wellington, offering to lend 'the mat for the be-decking of the death chamber until after the funeral. Meedless to say, the v«nerable old mat (said to be over 100 years old), which did such signal service seventy-one years, ago, has been; viewed with no little' emotion by the members of Mr. McKenzie's family, and the offer, so kindly, meant, was warmly accepted.—Dominion.