Page 2 Advertisements Column 5

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1921, Page 2

The sangfroid of the Maori in a tight corner is illustrated by a yarn they tell in the. Gisborne district. A small runholder had cut out 20 of his primest wethers and put them in a paddock near the homestead to fatten up. After a few days he found there were only 19;-about a week later there were only 18: and in six weeks nearly half his mutton had vanished. He had reason to suspect the Maori rouseabout of making away with the wethers, but could not- find any proof until early one morning, when riding down a fence, he found Henare. clambering over the wire with a whether on his back. Pulling up, he yelled out : “Hey, you, what are you doing with that sheep?” “Who got the——sheep?” replied Henare is astonishment—“l no see te sheep ’bout here.” “Then, what’s that on your back?” roared the maddened sheepman. The Maori slowly looked over his shoulder, then said in a thunderstruck '“Hurro. sU e^sie « I lo ' 4 ’ YOU dare_V’