MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 July 1938, Page 5

MAORI MEMORIES

WHEN SELWYN CAME. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) In 1841-42 horse racing and fashion parties were the main diversions of the white people. Ten years later, in a population of 26,700, there were 12,000 adults who could not read or write. In Wellington there were bullock drays and a few horse carts, but no gigs or side saddles for the ladies. Maori women clothed in a waist mat straddled bareback horses, but no white woman dared sit astride in those days. The Maori track had been widened from Port “Nick” to Porirua, and the road to the Hutt was being cleared of timber. Shipping was scarce; news between Wellington and Nelson came via Sydney to Auckland. New Plymouth was as isolated as Norfolk Island. It was not even known that earthquakes were felt on both sides of Cook Straits. Arising perhaps from the influx of convicts from New South Wales, the aristocracy made the Wakefield Club an exclusive and very select institution where cards were played till sunrise. At Auckland, the Government officers held aloof in a settlement they called “Official Bay,” but as no one would take service in such aristocratic quarters it had to be abandoned. The people were easy going, and indifferent to fashion. Blue dungaree shirts and moleskin trousers were worn by men who served the ladies over the counter, without removing the tobacco stained clay pipes from their lips. Bishdp Selwyn came in 1842, and as he could outpace the Maoris in walking, fording the rivers, and shooting birds, they credited him with supernatural powers, and so became faithful followers. Herewine te oha (Selwyn, the generous) was hailed by the crowd in every Pa. The helping hand was the keynote of his Christian principles.