KITE FLYING

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10712, 6 November 1912, Page 6

KITE FLYING

AX ANCIENT MAORI CUSTOM

THE MANU-AUTE DESCRIBED

At :i meeting of fcln* Auckland I" .stitute ou Thursday night, the Re; Archdeacon Walsh delivered a mos< iutorestiiiK lecture o ntlio manu-a,ut< or Maori kite (says tho Aucklam Star). Previous to their contact witl Europeans, the lecturer explained, tin Maoris were ,1 strenuous people n work, in war. and in sport- Game.' and exorcises of one kind and anothed were indulged in vigorous all the year round. The Maoris (the lectuior remarked drily) had not then reached that stage of civilisation when n few specialists in sport would take part while hundreds looked on, us in a Spanish 'bull-fight, or a colonial football match. Kit-e-flying was an ancient and popular amusement. Captain Ccok recorded nothing concerning it, but this was not remarkable when it was remembered with only ono idea at a time, and when Cook arrived they wore so taken up with the ship and the strange people, with tho wonderful lire-arms and the priceless goods, that kite-Hying was not indulged in. For tho s;ine reason other early explorers had not had an opportunity to observe this pastime. According to Polynesian mythology, Maui himself was a kite-ilyer, and it was even recorded that his kite was made I of auto —hence the generic term, nw-nu-ante, "the bird nv.de of ante." Probably auto was introduced ir.tc Sew Zealand by early 31aotis, Inu. being difficult of cultivation, it was allowed to die out when cotton fabrics became available for vr;ring apparel, and commoner materials we:used for the body and wings of tbr kite, .although ante was frequently J used fot' the head. The fine model n tho Auckland Museum (it was exhib ited by the lecturer on Thursday night) w.-.'s -made for Sir George Grey by the East Const- Natives. In shap< it was, roughly, a hawk with out stretched wing;; measuring ten t< twelve feet from tip to til). It wro made of raupo neatly stitchetl on ; light fr.imt"! of manuk i; the body ant wings were coloured red and black ii strips, while the head was c"voro< with auto and wa;i decorated wit] hawks' feathers. Two other speci mens, much smaller, and trianguiir ii shape, were also shown. So Far a: could, he ascertained (Arclidc.icoi Walsh .said), Maori kites had no tail; J tis we understand the term to mear long streamers. It was customarv, in order to make the kites llv. to chant kite-charms, which were couched in very poetical language, but were of such great antiquity that it was difficult adequately to interpret them. CVilenso, in his writings, h-.d oxpres--•ed surprise to see old men uiter; and spinning tops, but why (the lec-turer-suggested) kite-flving was less manly than, bowling or golf would be difficult to conceive, especially if the kite-flyer made his own machine. Archdeacon Walsh made reference to descriptions of kites by various authors, according to whom it ironic! ap- • pe-ar that tho manu-aute. strictly socalled, was of quite an ordinary type. Some of those described required from 150 to 200 yards of string, and large: ones from 300 to 400 yards of string, but the gigantic manu-kahu (tho hawk) took "0 men to control, it, and required 1200 yards of . string. The lecturer quoted .3, graphic description by Te Pangi of such an important event as the flying of tho last-named kit'o, which, with its horned head, was quite a dangerous machine as it swooped about. Kites, however ,we.re not always pl>iy things. They often had a religious significance, and were used at the tohungas to assist in their divinations. They were ;also used to indicate land suitable for settlement. , and sometimes as a me:;ns of communication between one district and another. Tho Maori kite was now a thing of the past, and probably no living; Maori -Ivkl ovor yeeil a red on?,. Sir George Grey had had to get his specially made. There was no room in modern life for its Use. Arch-

, deacon Walsh exhibited during his I lecturo sketches of other types of kites | from different parts of the Pacific, and explaining that kite-flying in the Melanesian, or black race islands,' was used in connection with fishing. Kiteflying had been known to.-tojtli black and brown races in tho Pacific for centuries, though in Britain it bad been known for only two centuries. ' It w:m an ancient game in tho East, ami possibly in this fact might yet (>e discovered somo link between* the Polynesians and the people of those eountrie-:. On the motion-of Archdeacon Hawkins, a hearty vote of thanks was ,K----corded to Arcdeaconh Walsh ler his address. Professor Segar. who presided, referring to the untenable contention of some people that kite flying was a childish pastime, remarked tint <t was by flying a kite that Benjamin J' ranklm established the proof of ],j s theory that thunder and lightning were due to the presence of electricity iii J'.o air.