MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1939, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

DOWNFALL AND UPLIFT.

(Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”)

The source of the Waikato River is Lake Taupo (a name indicating loadstone or iron-ore). The Maoris firmly believed that it passed its crystal-clear waters through Lake Taupo without mingling with its muddy contents. Kihikihi (the cicada), a village which was in constant dispute between the Waikato and Maniapoto tribes as to ownership, had as its leading chief Rewi Manaiapoto, whose claim to. fame lies mainly in the fact that the New Zealand horse Manaiapoto was expected to win the Melbourne Cup. For a few years this was a prosperous centre of Maori industry, with many kinds of labour-saving agricultural machinery, purchased and skilfully used. Few pakehas and no Maoris knew anything about the use of manure, so Maori occupation and use of land never extended beyond three years, when the soil was exhausted and they movec>on. With modern homes and appliances they were induced on stay on indefinitely. This was the main cause of their hopeless poverty and downfall.

This condition was strangely enough the reason why our superior military forces failed to subdue the Waikato tribes. They had little or nothing to lose, and when we sought to govern them they simply retired to fresh soil in more distant and less accessible places. Their main highways were fleets of canoes on streams and rivers, and their fortresses the forests and mountains.

The exclusion of liquor and a few tons of top-dresing for each Maori village would be the simple keys to their salvation.